Boston101 Post time: 2016-7-10 20:14
There are five claimants to territory in the South China Sea. China signed up for UNCLOS. Now that ...

China did not sign up to UNCLOS to place China's claims of sovereignty up for grabs. That has always been the case. With UNCLOS arbitration it has always been understood that the arbitration mechanism was available if BOTH parties chose arbitration. It is a voluntary arbitration process and the outcome is only enforceable if both parties agree to refer the dispute for arbitration. That is not the case and it is therefore a ploy to try and bully China into a weaker position. Now they have changed the game play I note that there are American and British lawyers involved and yet the USA are not signatories to UNCLOS. Other countries involved in the S.China Sea disputes have also rejected UNCLOS arbitration and if UNCLOS is going to be used for purposes of bullying then UNCLOS will find itself considerably weaker in stature and liable to loosing signatories.

fatdragon Post time: 2016-7-11 20:39
China did not sign up to UNCLOS to place China's claims of sovereignty up for grabs. That has alwa ...

China signed UNCLOS and now is reneging. China’s claim that it can legally ignore the pending arbitral award is not only wrong, it is legally insupportable. When China joined UNCLOS in 1996, it freely agreed to subject itself to compulsory dispute resolution under Article 296 (“Any decision rendered by a court or tribunal having jurisdiction under this section shall be final and shall be complied with by all the parties to the dispute) as well as Article 288(4) (“jurisdiction [shall be] settled by decision of that court or tribunal.”).

Boston101 Post time: 2016-7-10 20:14
There are five claimants to territory in the South China Sea. China signed up for UNCLOS. Now that ...

Now that the ruling is going against them they say the won't adhere to that decision.

This is not correct. China already insists on bilateral negotiations from the beginning when Philippines filed the case. China's stand has been consistent throughout.

What China is doing is the greatest territorial expansion by any power since imperial Japan’s annexation of large swaths of Asia in the first half of the 20th century.

It is not territorial expansion but protection of sovereignty. There were treaties signed much earlier that supports China's sovereignty such as 1898 Treaty of Paris, the treaty between US and Spain (about 1900) where the boundaries of Philippines were decided and which did not include the disputed islands, the Cairo and Potsdam Declaration which mention that all Japan seized territories must be returned to China.

No countries disputed with China then. It was until oil was supposedly found there that Vietnam and Philippines started to occupy the disputed islands unilaterally without consensus. Right now, they are still being occupied but the media seldom mention this and even brush this aside, only accusing China.